Remembering the legacy of activist Ernest Rice, gunned down in 1994

Sunday

Apr 13, 2014 at 10:58 PM

Ernest Rice was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in a church parking lot March 10, 1994. This past March marked the 20th anniversary of his death, and community members say they are still committed to carrying on his legacy.

By Daniel J. Grossdaniel.gross@shj.com

A woman carries groceries from her car to her home. A man sits on his front porch. Another man walks his dog along a roadway. Yards are clean from debris.It's quiet.These observations would have been rare 20 years ago when driving in an area of Spartanburg once coined “The Hole,” according to former Public Safety Director W.C. Bain, who drove through on a recent Friday and waved at each passer-by.The neighborhood between Baltimore and Wofford streets just north of Spartanburg's downtown at one time was a feeding ground for drug deals, crack houses, prostitution, gun violence and gang activity.Shots rang out almost nightly, Bain said, but no longer.Bain rallied police officers to “take back the neighborhood” in one of the most crime-ridden, blight-stricken areas of the city in the early '90s. Now, one man comes to mind when he drives through those streets to reflect on the “night and day” changes.“He was a hero,” Bain said.Ernest Rice — memorialized now through the neighborhood's name “Ernest Rice Estates” — was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in a church parking lot March 10, 1994. This past March marked the 20th anniversary of his death, and community members say they are still committed to carrying on his legacy.Rice was a victim of his own passion, one who stood in the face of danger for a better tomorrow, Bain said.The fatal shooting was after the end of a church league basketball game as players and organizers were leaving. Rice had coached the Ebenezer Baptist Church team and helped elderly and poor neighbors find federal funding to repair dilapidated homes.

Having grown up in “The Hole,” he was known for his determination to improve his community and provide safe, positive outlets for youth.“It takes a special individual that's got institutional fortitude to stand up like that,” Bain said. “His dedication to cleaning up his neighborhood was his conviction.”Bain said Rice met with him regularly to share his grievances about the community's conditions.Rice left behind his wife, son, daughter and a grieving community determined to finish what he started.Ernest Rice Jr., now 33, was 13 years old when his father dropped to the ground next to him on that fatal March evening.He remembers the night as if it were yesterday, he acknowledged when looking through archived photographs from the scene.“I was right beside him the whole time. … It was a drive-by so, you know, we all went to the ground. Then I'm getting up, but my dad was still on the ground.”Soon after, five teens were arrested and charged in connection with the killing.One of those convicted in the shooting soon will be eligible for parole, Ernest Rice Jr. said. The family will not fight it, he added.“We forgive him. … That's the godly thing to do. This is what my dad would want, to give some people a second chance,” Ernest Rice Jr. said.

Bain said that before Ernest Rice's killing, someone had set fire to a home being used as a police surveillance station in the area.He recalls bringing in police officers in droves to the very street for an impromptu news conference to “go to war” with the neighborhood.“We decided that we as a department were going to take back the neighborhood. And (Ernest Rice) was right there in the forefront, doing this for his family, for his neighborhood,” Bain said.Bain placed officers on 24-hour patrols through the neighborhood and prevented drug pushers from operating on their typical street corners.Spartanburg Police Department's patrol division commander, Capt. Art Littlejohn, remembers being a patrol officer during Ernest Rice's time as a community leader and Bain's 20-year tenure as public safety director.He described that part of Spartanburg back then as a place with the most calls for service in the city and somewhere where “you could pretty much stand on any corner or intersection and sell crack cocaine.”He remembers Ernest Rice as a man who paved the way for getting local youth involved in positive activities.“I think more than anything, he stood for wanting to help young people, to help young men to get on the right path,” Littlejohn said. “He was giving people hope.”He and Bain said Ernest Rice Estates is now a place where anyone can live peacefully, and few calls for service come from the area now.The improvement is vast, compared with the daily squabbles decades ago, but local leaders and those who knew Rice say the work must go on.

“There's still a whole lot to be done. That's the reason I'm still here,” said Ernest Rice Jr., who works as a guidance counselor at Carver Middle School. “Education and doing things for kids; that's my passion.”Even through time, not a day goes by that Ernest Rice Jr. doesn't think about his dad.He said almost daily he is asked about his father from other parents and teachers he works with at the middle school, even 20 years later.“He touched a lot of lives while he was here,” he said, adding that he improved his own life after his dad died.“I was getting Ds, Cs and Fs. And once my father died, honestly, I had to be the man of the house. I wasn't living up to my potential.”Ernest Rice Jr. said the community began to notice rapid change through citywide efforts to demolish dilapidated houses in “The Hole” and create Ernest Rice Estates after his father's death.“I know that if anybody was going to die that night, he would have wanted it to be him,” Ernest Rice Jr. said. “I really hate to say it, but sometimes it takes a tragedy for people to realize what's going on.”Bain agreed that there is always more to be done when it comes to improving the quality of life.“The devil doesn't sleep,” he said.Building up youth in the community and helping guide their actions is something Ernest Rice stood for and something all community members should be charged with, Bain said.

“He was a hero in his time, a hero that stood up to the bad guys,” Bain said with tearful eyes.He glanced at an old photograph that shows Ernest Rice speaking to city council members in a public meeting, fighting for improvements that have since come to fruition.“He was one of the finest men that I had ever met,” he said. “I miss him.”